Ghost Stories
by Lynyrd Lionheart
Summary: ... and other tales of College shenanigans. 3: Bellamy gets in a fight for Clarke's honor. It wasn't necessary, but she kind of appreciates it.
1. Ghost Stories

**AN: A Bellarke AU based on the prompt "I think this library is haunted – will you help me look?"**

**Ghost Stories**

Clarke Griffin did _not_ believe in ghosts. They were a ridiculous concept, and Clarke was pretty sure that if there was such a thing as life after death, then the dead would have a whole list of better things to do than haunt the living.

Hell, Clarke was _alive_ and she had a whole list of things she'd rather do than spend time with the living.

She didn't believe in ghosts… but that didn't stop her from being creeped out when a book two aisles over randomly fell off the shelf and startled her out of the half-sleep she had almost fallen into. She blamed the studying. It was making her mind into mush. And she blamed the time – one in the morning in a huge library with hardly anyone else around? It had nothing to do with ghosts, and everything to do with her overactive mind playing tricks on her.

And damn Raven anyway, for reading her all of those CreepyPasta articles during one of their study breaks. Clarke would have been perfectly fine, if she hadn't had thoughts of The Midnight Man and that stupid bath tub ghost floating around in her mind.

"I think you have to actually take a book off the shelf to learn anything from it."

Clarke let out an undignified yelp and grabbed a book, spinning around with a two-handed swing. Bellamy Blake managed to duck just in time to avoid being hit by _Gray's Anatomy_, although it wasn't particularly graceful, and involved a lot of swearing.

"Jesus, Princess, what's got you so jumpy?" he demanded, clambering back to his feet and wrestling the text from her hands, putting it back in its place on the shelf. "That thing would have killed me, you know."

"And the world would have mourned," Clarke snapped back, though her voice came out far higher than she would have liked, a sure sign of her still racing pulse. But Bellamy Blake was the university's biggest prick, and even with her blood pumping at double rate, Clarke could hardly let him get one up on her.

"Maybe not the world, but your roommate certainly would have."

Clarke crinkled her nose in disgust and rolled her eyes at the reminder that, not only had Raven and Bellamy slept together in freshman year, but they'd somehow become the best of friends in the aftermath. Clarke swore he spent more time in their dorm room than he did in his own. And now, apparently, she would tolerate him even when she was ghost hunting…ah, studying. Yes. Even when she was studying.

"I know you're pre-med, Princess, but I think that's a little ahead of the game, even for you. I though Raven said you guys were studying Physics together."

"We were," Clarke replied with irritation, and she knew what Bellamy was thinking – _then why are you in the Medicine section_ – and she really didn't want to explain to him that, even though she didn't believe in them, there may have been a ghost haunting the stacks.

She decided it was a sign that she had been studying way too long, that thinking such a thing sounded perfectly rational.

"I'll bite," Bellamy said after the silence became long enough that he clearly realized Clarke would say no more on the subject. "If you're studying for Physics, then why are you trying to brain me with _Gray's Anatomy_ rather than _Advanced Particle Theory _or something. And where is Raven?"

"First off, I'm pretty sure that textbook doesn't exist. Second, Raven went to bed because she's weak and requires sleep during finals. And finally…" she trailed off, because she _really_ didn't want to explain her presence amongst the medicine texts to Bellamy. For his part, Bellamy just leaned against the stacks and watched her with patient amusement. Normally, _patient_ wasn't a word one used to describe Bellamy Blake, but Clarke had come to discover that when it came to annoying _her_ there was no end to his aptitude for it.

"Today, Princess."

Clarke opened her mouth – probably to snap at him for his continued insistence of calling her _Princess_ even though she hated it, maybe to tell him something close to the truth – when a loud bang once again had her jumping. This time, right into Bellamy. He caught her, and her arms wrapped around him out of instinct, and she clung to him tightly, frantically listening, to identify where the ghost… er, the noise, had come from this time.

"Clarke?" Bellamy asked hesitantly, and Clarke wasn't sure what surprised her more – that he used her name, or the hesitance in his voice as he said it. "Are you okay?"

Her mind chose that moment to catch up with her actions, and she remembered that A) she considered Bellamy to be a plague upon the Earth that she should never, ever get this close to and B) that they were nowhere near close enough for her to be hugging, even if it was out of fear. She pulled back from him as though she were burned, putting several feet of space between them.

"Uh, the noise startled me," Clarke said, pasting what she hoped was a believable smile on her face.

"Uh huh?" Bellamy replied, his expression saying quite clearly what he thought of that. "It was just a book falling, Princess. Come on, I'll even go check it out with you. The way you reacted, it was like you thought it was a ghost or something."

He had reached out to grab her hand to pull her along to check out the bang, but Clarke's sudden stiffening as he said _ghost_ had him pausing. Slowly, he turned back to her. Clarke wasn't sure what he saw in her expression, but it had a slow smirk crossing his face. Clarke cursed that smirk every time she saw it, because it meant that he was about to say something that would annoy her, and it made him look far more attractive than he had any right to be.

"Don't tell me that the Princess is afraid of ghosts," he said, and Clarke felt her expression tighten as he threw his head back and laughed. Bellamy was a full body laugher, something Clarke both liked, because it was so genuine, and hated, because more often than not the laughter was directed at her.

"Ghosts aren't real," she stated, pushing past him and wandering in the direction the bang had come from. "It's just something used to play with our minds at slumber parties."

"I don't know, my grandmother swore that my uncle haunted her place until she died. And there were some odd noises. Maybe a student was murdered here. Or a librarian died of boredom at her desk."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Clarke retorted. She turned down an aisle and saw a book sitting in the middle of the row. Once again it was large, large enough that it shouldn't have been displaced easily from the shelf, and it had a title written in what she was pretty sure was Russian. She lifted it and put it in the slot where it clearly belonged. "I told you, I was startled."

"Hmmm," Bellamy hummed, surveying her with amusement. "Raven was reading to you from CreepyPasta again, wasn't she?"

Clarke crossed her arms and glared at him, but Bellamy just raised a brow and copied her position. She finally allowed her arms to drop and sighed.

"Okay, yes," she agreed at last, feeling her shoulder slump.

"What was it this time?"

"The Midnight Man and that stupid bath ghost one," Clarke replied, deciding that if they had to talk about this, it would be back at the desk she had claimed as her own until the end of exams.

"Oh, Daruma-san. I tried that once. I was very disappointed when it didn't work."

Clarke shivered at the thought of ever trying something like that willingly, and it had Bellamy laughing, which made her glare at him over her shoulder.

"Easy there, Clarke. All of that stuff is bullshit. But you really shouldn't listen when she starts reading them. You _know_ they always make you think that there's ghosts in the stacks."

Clarke just muttered under her breath, because did he _have_ to remind her that this wasn't the first time this had happened? It wasn't her fault her roommate had a horror story fetish!

"The books kept falling," she muttered.

"You can admit it, Clarke. You believe in ghosts," Bellamy's voice was far too smug, and Clarke considered retrieving _Gray's Anatomy_ to try and hit him again.

"Don't call me that," she grumbled instead.

"What? _Clarke_? It's your name, and you hate it when I call you Princess."

"You only call me Clarke when you're being serious. You're not being serious right now."

"Now you're just being contrary."

Clarke huffed but didn't respond, because they both knew he was right. Instead she sat once more and returned to her Physics. Bellamy took the seat next to her, pulling out his own textbook, and Clarke paused, looking at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Studying," Bellamy replied, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Clarke continued to stare, and he sighed after a moment. "Look, we both know that you won't be able to concentrate now if you're alone. You'll keep on looking for a ghost to come and get you or something. So, I'm studying."

He went back to his book once more, and Clark watched him for another second or two.

"Stop staring, Princess," he said. "I know I'm striking, but it's making me uncomfortable. And the sooner you finish your chapter, the sooner I can go to bed."

Clarke didn't say anything, just opened her book to the right page and began to read. But there was a smile on her face while she did so.

**AN: I love Bellarke AUs. They're my favorite. Let me know what you think!**


	2. Intrusions

**AN: Someone suggested that I expand this AU with more one shots, and since Bellarke college AUs are my favorite, I figured why not? This takes place before **_**Ghost Stories**_**, in freshman year.**

**Intrusions**

Clarke Griffin had been a college freshman for exactly six weeks when she officially met Bellamy Blake.

_Officially_, because they had met unofficially three weeks previous, when she had been barred from her own dorm room by a sock on the door so that Bellamy and her roommate, Raven Reyes, could have sex.

Loud, _enthusiastic_ sex. That Clarke had been forced to hear, because the libraries were closed and Monty had been AWOL from his room, leaving Clarke to wait outside her own and wish that she had been given a roommate without a sex drive. She had fallen asleep there, sitting against the wall, and been woken the next morning by the door opening and Bellamy Blake stepping out, though she hadn't known that was his name at the time.

"All yours, Princess," he'd told her, using the nickname Raven's friend Finn had given her, telling her that while she didn't know who he was, he certainly knew _her_.

"Shit Clarke," Raven had said when Clarke pushed her way into the room. "Were you out there all night?"

Clarke thought about answering. Ignoring the sex drive thing, she _liked_ Raven, even considered the other girl to be a friend. But she was tired and grumpy, and so rather than answering, she'd just slumped face first onto her mattress and decided that her eight thirty class was not something she was going to experience that day.

"Crap," she heard Raven mutter. "Should have gone back to Bellamy's room."

_Bellamy_, Clarke had thought after that. _His name is Bellamy._

And then she had fallen asleep.

That had been three weeks ago, and though Clarke had seen Bellamy a time or two on campus, she hadn't been barred from her room by him again. Nor had she introduced herself.

Until now.

Clarke had returned from her Bio lab, three hours spent with other freshman lumped into a room that was far too small for the number of students it held, and her lab partner, an unfortunately clumsy boy nicknamed Atom, had spilled their experiment all over lab coat. Clarke had come back to her room looking forward to nothing more than having a shower. Raven wasn't there, and Clarke had to admit to some relief at that, because as much as she liked her, the last thing Clarke wanted to do was deal with another person.

Showered and feeling human again, Clarke returned to her room to change. She had just dropped her robe to the ground, when there was a sharp knock on the door, which swung open before she had time to tell whomever it was to wait.

"Raven, I need to get those Physics notes from y- well, hello, Princess."

Clarke yelped and dove for her robe, wrapping herself in the pink fabric as quickly as she could, but not quite quickly enough to avoid giving Bellamy Blake one hell of an eyeful. She glared at him, and he just smirked back, a smirk that crinkled his eyes and made him look ridiculously attractive, which Clarke found more than a little irritating, because no ass like Bellamy should ever look attractive.

"You're looking particularly nice today," he continued, and Clarke scowled at him.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" she demanded, pulling the belt of her rob tightly around her waist.

"Haven't you ever heard of locking a door? At least while your naked?" Bellamy crossed his arms and leaned his hip against Raven's desk. "What if I had been someone with less than pure intentions for you?"

Clarke scowled and opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought of him and any _intentions_ he might have, then she noticed that, though he was smirking and looking all around like a douche lord, his gaze was very firmly directed over her shoulder. Clarke knew her room well. She knew the only think over her shoulder was her well-stocked book collection, and she couldn't see him having that much interest in her choice of novels.

She felt herself smirking. What do you know – Raven's asshole FWB had a bit of a conscience.

"Step outside," she told him, grabbing his arm and leading him to the door, giving him a shove out. "I'll let you back in when I'm changed."

"Going to lock it this time, Princess?" he drawled out, though he didn't fight her grip, instead letting her propel him out of the room.

"Why? I have my very own guard dog to keep anyone with impure intentions away, don't I?"

She closed the door on whatever remark he might have thought to make. She was pretty sure he wouldn't try and sneak a peek, but better safe than sorry, Clarke changed in record time, showing minimal skin. Jeans and tank top in place, she opened the door again, and stepped back, motioning for him to enter.

"So, when you decided to forego knocking earlier, you mentioned that you needed notes from Raven? She keeps them… not on my side of the room. What are you doing?"

He had wandered to the book shelf and was looking at it thoughtfully. His fingers trailed over her collection of _In Death_ books and came to hover over one with a black cover, a familiar red apple.

"Really?" he asked with amusement, pulling it out and holding it up with a hand. "_Twilight_? Doesn't seem like your style, Princess."

"I'm eighteen years old. Like every other girl my age, I was at the prime age for _Twilight_ when it was released. I inhaled those things. Like everyone else" – Clarke snatched it from him, putting it back in its place. It was well worn, the cover bent and the pages dog-eared, and she could remember how she had spent a year reading and re-reading the whole series and wishing she could have a love story just like it. She had since changed her mind, but the series still held a fond place in her heart.

"I think I might be a little disappointed. Here I was, thinking you weren't like other girls."

"Then I suggest you prepare yourself for great disappointment in life, Bellamy. If you're looking for a girl that's different from all the rest, you'll be searching for a while. And even if you do find her, she won't be nearly as great as you think."

"Huh, you know my name."

Clarke turned back to him, crossing her arms and leaning on her book shelf and raised a brow at him.

"Seriously? _That's_ what you got out of what I just said? That I know your name?"

Bellamy shrugged and grinned. Seeing that Clarke wasn't going to let him at her book shelf again, he sauntered away and took a seat on Raven's bed, bouncing a few times, as though to test the mattress. Clarke nearly made a smart comment – _aren't you familiar enough with it?_ – but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear his reply, so she bit her tongue.

"Well, you know my name. So what's yours?"

"Princess," Clarke deadpanned, and Bellamy let out a chuckle, but then sat there and just watched her. "Seriously? Didn't you ask Raven what her roommate's name was?"

"Well, back when we first met Raven and I weren't doing a whole lot of talking, and after that, well… it just never came up. So…?"

"Clarke," she replied, rolling her eyes and grabbing her Biology textbook off her desk. Maybe, if she pretended to study, he would stop talking.

"Clarke," he murmured, dragging out the _ar_ sound to the point where he almost sounded like a pirate. He glanced over some papers on the table beside Raven's desk, then seemed to decide they were boring at looked at her once more. "Yeah, it doesn't suit you. I'm sticking with Princess."

"Good for you," Clarke replied dryly, grabbing a highlighter and sprawling onto her stomach on her bed.

She was sure Bellamy would have another smartass comment, but the door swung open before he could do so.

"Bell," Raven greeted, her voice holding clear surprise. "Why are you – crap, the physics notes. I'm sorry, Clarke. I forgot that I promised him I would get them."

"Not a problem," Clarke replied. "He was on his very best behavior."

"I saved her from the grasp of perverts that would have taken advantage of her," Bellamy agreed solemnly, drawing rolled eyes from Clarke and confusion from Raven.

"What – you know what, never mind. I don't want to know. Here are the notes, Blake. Right in front of you, if you'd bothered to look."

Clarke's head snapped up as Raven grabbed a pile of papers off her bedside table – the same papers Bellamy had rifled through and then ignored. She looked at him with a narrow-eyed gaze, and he gave her a smirk back.

"Would you look at that," he said, and though the words were meant for Raven, he never looked away from Clarke. "I guess I should have snooped a bit more. Thanks for the notes, Reyes. Princess – it has been a pleasure."

Clarke didn't have a quick reply, so she just gave him an insincere, tight lipped grin that made Bellamy chuckle.

"And hot pink suits you," he added over his shoulder, before he slipped out of the room, door closing behind him.

"I have to bite on that one," Raven said as he left. "Because I have _never_ seen you wear hot pink. What the hell?"

"Your friend is kind of a jackass," Clarke replied, and Raven was both smart and good enough a roommate that she let it go with that lame explanation and minimal grumbling.

Clarke looked at her textbook once more, though her gaze slid briefly to her hanger on the back of the door, where her bright pink robe hung.

God, but Bellamy Blake was an ass.

**AN: And there it is, the very beginning. And if anyone enjoys having their hearts broken, I poste another T100 story called **_**Safe From Battle**_**, and it would be cool if you would check it out.**


	3. First Kisses

**AN: The next addition to this AU! Obviously, this takes place after both **_**Ghost Stories **_**and **_**Intrusions**_**. This would take place late in junior year of their degree programs. So they've known each other for about 3 years. Mentions of past Flarke and Clexa.**

**First Kisses**

Clarke had been uncomfortably aware of how attractive Bellamy was almost since day one. Yes, he had been that jerk her roommate slept with, but he'd always been that _attractive_ jerk Raven had slept with. But Clarke was nothing if not single minded when she decided on something, and so when she'd decided to ignore how unfairly attractive Bellamy was, she'd thought she'd done a pretty damn good job.

But when she was forced into a position where she was touching the warm, smooth skin of his chest and upper arms, it became way, _way_ more difficult than she would have ever expected.

"You all right there, Princess?" Bellamy asked, voice cutting through the distracted haze that had hit Clarke's mind when he had stripped off his shirt.

"Fine," Clarke replied briskly, hoping that the attitude would distract from her previous staring. She applied the warm cloth that had been dangling from her fingers to the abrasion on his arm and handed him some ice wrapped in a hand towel to press against his swelling eye. It was the best she could find in the room she shared with Raven, stealing from her roommate's supply of _booze ice_. "Remind me again why you thought it was a good idea to get in a fight with Gus? He has a half a foot and fifty pounds on you."

"He was being a jerk to you," Bellamy replied flatly, tracing patterns on the comforter of Clarke's bed, where she had shoved him in order to try and clean him up. "And it pissed me off, because he had no grounds for it. It was Lexa that-"

Bellamy cut himself off, and Clark had to give him props for it, because as a general rule he had always been really bad at checking himself when he got a cause in his mind. But that didn't stop her expression from souring at the mention of that name – _Lexa_ – because they both knew where that particular rant was going.

"That cheated on me," Clarke finished for him, grapping the Polysporin and q-tip and beginning to apply it to the gash Gus had left on Bellamy's jaw. "You can say it. I was stupid over her, and she didn't think twice about betraying me. Just like she did with Anya."

_With me_, Clarke's mind added, though she hadn't known when she first met Lexa that she already had a girlfriend. When she'd found out, she had, of course, confronted the other woman, had told her that she wouldn't be involved with someone that was already involved.

Lexa had sworn that she loved Clarke, that she had, in fact, already broken up with Anya, and though Clarke hadn't forgiven her immediately, forgiveness had eventually occurred, and now Clarke was left feeling just like Anya must have. Betrayed and like an utter idiot.

Everyone had warned her, that Lexa got bored easily. But like a fool Clarke had ignored them and fallen recklessly head over heels. And now, eight months later, she still felt like an idiot.

"Hey," Bellamy said as Clark set the Polysporin aside and turned around to reach for a bandaid. His hand closed around her wrist, and he tugged her around so that she looked at him. "You know that it was her loss, right? Lexa was an idiot who clearly didn't deserve you, and now that you're not together? It's her loss, Princess."

"Thanks, Bellamy," Clarke replied, her lips curving in a smile. Bellamy still held her wrist, his hold warm and comforting, and he slowly returned her smile. They probably looked like idiots, sitting there, grinning at each other, but Clarke found that she couldn't look away. Their position mean that their faces were just inches apart, and she could count the freckles that dusted his cheeks, if she wanted to. She could see the tiny scar on his lip, the result of an experiment that Monty and Jasper had decided try, that had gone wrong, and thinking of that made her think of how Bellamy had, somehow, become so entrenched in her life.

He had started as just her roommates fuck buddy, then they had learned to tolerate each other, and somehow that had turned into him spending time with _her_ friends as well, and studying with her in the library, because he knew that she hated the noises the stacks made, and how books always seemed to be falling, whenever she was there alone.

She had been staring at that scar, she realized with surprise, and that meant she had been staring at his lips. Her tongue swept out to wet her own, because she realized with a surprised jolt that _he_ had been staring at her lips in turn. His gaze darted up, met hers for a breathless second.

And then she had pressed her lips to his, tangled her hands in his dark, curly hair, and pulled him into her. She had a brief moment of sane thought right after skin contacted skin – _what the hell do I think I'm doing?_ – and then he had nipped her bottom lip, swept his tongue into her mouth, and pulled her against his warm, hard body, and any sane thoughts left her mind.

His hair was softer than she had imagined it would be – not that she had imagined it that often. But it was so thick and curly, that she'd just thought it would be coarse, should she ever have the need to touch it. But it wasn't. It was thick, yes, but soft. Her fingers ran through it easily, trailing down the back of his head to cling around his neck.

He half lifted half tugged her down, so that she straddled his lap. She didn't mind, the angle allowed her to kiss him more comfortably, and it meant that her legs no longer had to support her legs. She could let them hang loosely on either side of them, and concentrate instead on the taste of him. His fingers splayed themselves on her hip, holding her steady, and she could feel the warmth of them even through the material of her jeans.

God… he was just _so warm._

She pulled back, because her body was reminding her that Oxygen was a thing she needed, and they both gasped desperately for air, their breath mingling together, because she stayed close enough that she could rest her forehead against his.

"What are we doing, Princess?" he asked, closing his eyes, his grip on her hips tightening slightly.

"I have no idea," Clarke replied honestly, because what _were_ they doing? He was her roommates kind of ex, her kind of friend, and they were really all sorts of wrong for each other. But – "I don't really want to stop. You?"

"God, no."

This time, he pulled her in for the kiss, and Clarke let him, not even pulling back when he let his upper body fall back to land on the bed. She just went with him, firmly attached at the lips and enthusiastically exploring his mouth. She moved her hands from his neck, trailing them down his body, over his arms –

And felt him recoil when her hand hit tender skin on his arm, from where he hit a wall in his fight with Augustus. The reminder had Clarke pulling back, because he had a black eye and a cut jaw and who knew what else, and her she was practically mauling him.

"We shouldn't be doing this," she stated, climbing off of him, and turning back to her makeshift first aid station to get the forgotten bandage.

"I thought you just said you didn't want to stop. What changed, Princess?"

Clarke turned back with a frown at his belligerent tone of voice, because what the hell had crawled up his and –

_Oh_. She blinked when she met his gaze, as belligerent as his voice, and realized that he probably had decided she was having second thoughts or something.

"I know that you were into Lexa, Clarke, but not everyone in the world is going to hurt you like that. I thought you would trust me enough to-"

"I need to finish bandaging you," Clarke held up the bandaid, and it was Bellamy's turn to blank and stare at her with a vacant, surprised look. "You're probably going to be sore in the morning. Me crawling all over you… probably not going to help."

"Oh," Bellamy replied, holding still so Clarke could finish with the cut on his jaw.

"And I do trust you," Clarke continued. "I mean, even when you were taking a new girl to bed every other week back in freshman year, it's not like you were leading any of them on. Raven told me about the speech you gave – the _this is just fun, not a relationship_ spiel – and she said it sounded pretty rehearsed."

"She told you about that?" Bellamy looked a little sheepish and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess that explains why you spent most of that year looking at me with that distasteful look you're so good at."

"That wasn't distaste. That was… me not having a clue what to do with you," Clarke admitted, beginning to clear up her supplies. She had done all she could for Bellamy. "You were so… _you_. But you also spent nearly half an hour with me while pretending you didn't know where Raven's physics notes were. And then there was that whole _do whatever the hell we want_ thing you and Murphy decided was a good idea-"

"The idiocy of youth," Bellamy agreed, and Clarke didn't have to see his face to know he was amused. "You stopped it pretty quick."

"You were idiots" – she paused and chewed on her lip thoughtfully – "well, Murphy is _still_ an idiot. You have your redeeming moments."

"Hmm," Bellamy hummed, before silence fell between them. Clarke didn't know what to say, she didn't know what any of this meant. She'd had exactly two – _failed_ – relationships since starting at University. The first was Finn, Raven's high school ex and her high school best friend, who had transferred schools after there had been some issues between him and their rival university. Then there had been Lexa, and, well…

Yeah, that hadn't gone so well.

"I'm not going to tell you that this is just fun," Bellamy said at last, and Clarke's gaze shot to him. He looked back, very seriously. "I'm not eighteen and stupid anymore, Princess. And you're not the type of girl I'd just has fun with."

"I think I feel insulted on Raven's behalf," Clarke replied, trying to lighten the mood, but Bellamy just gave a dry snort and shook his head.

"Not that easy to distract me, Clarke. Raven _was_ fun. Because that's all either of us was looking for, and it's good, because her and Wick are good together. But I knew right from the start, when I left your room and you gave me that look of yours, that irritated one that makes you look so damn cute, that you would be trouble for me."

"I'm not trouble-"

"Yeah, that's the look I was talking about. Right there. And of course you're trouble. You have me watching out for Raven and Monty and Jasper, even though the three of them like to get drunk and blow shit up more often than not. It's giving Miller grey hairs, you know. And if it weren't for you, Octavia wouldn't have met Lincoln, and damn if that doesn't give _me_ grey hairs. So yeah, you're trouble, of the very best kind."

"I'm not ready to be in another relationship, Bellamy," Clarke admitted at last, sitting on her chair across from him. "They don't tend to end well for me. Finn went crazy. Lexa turned out to be a backstabbing bitch. I'm 0 for 2 here."

"Did it ever cross your mind that maybe it's because they just weren't right for you?"

Of course it had. On more than one occasion. Finn had been cute, had made Clarke feel confident, but Finn was the type that needed to save someone. He had been Raven's knight in high school, and then had tried to be Clarke's. But Clark hadn't needed saving, and in the end Finn had tried to stir up trouble to create that roll for himself in her life. It had been doomed from the start.

And Lexa… Lexa had been beautiful and wild and had made Clarke feel alive, but she'd also thrown Clarke's life into disarray, and when she hadn't been up to it – to the wild and the partying and taking life one day at a time rather than planning – Lexa had left, bored, because their lives were headed down very different paths.

But just because Clarke knew both relationships had been doomed, didn't make the failure hurt any less.

"I'm not proposing to you, Princess," Bellamy said, hooking his foot around the chair so he could wheel it forward and take Clarke's hands in his own. "I'm not even promising that this won't end badly. We both have strong opinions, and they clash pretty often… but I've wanted to kiss you like that since freshman year. And I've wanted to be more than just a friend since the first time I walked into the library and caught you ghost hunting because the stacks were creaking again."

"Books fall in there, Bellamy. It's a perfectly valid fear-"

"Did you hear anything else I just said, Clarke?"

Clarke sighed and looked down at their hands. Their fingers were intertwined, and she didn't want to pull away. She liked the way they fit together, his skin dark and freckled against her own smaller, paler hands. Their hands had always fit together like that, and thinking back made her think of how natural it had always felt to touch Bellamy. Letting him help her up from the table at a club, or in the library. A pat on the shoulder when Raven, _inevitably_, beat him at chess, because she was weirdly genius at that game. A hand on the small of her back, when they presented a united front before Monty and Jasper, with Miller in the corner watching his boyfriend with fond eyes, because seriously? Using their TA credentials to get into the chem labs after hours to play with the chemicals was not a thing that was okay.

"I heard it all, Bellamy," she replied, still looking at their hands. "You do know Raven is going to gloat, right? She's been trying to push us together since… well, probably since she stopped sleeping with you. Possibly even before that."

"Is that a deal breaker?" Bellamy raised a brow. "Raven gloating?"

"No," Clarke looked at him thoughtfully, her finger tracing patterns on his palm. "I'm not calling you my boyfriend."

Bellamy looked ready to argue, but Clarke decided she had him figured out – she knew the best way to shut him up.

She pulled him in for another kiss.

**AN: And there you go. If you have anything you want to see in this AU, drop me a note either here or on my tumblr, where I'm lynyrdwrites. Remember that these don't have to be in order, so I will still write stuff that takes place before this chapter. And in case you're wondering, yes Octavia/Lincoln, Raven/Wick, and Monty/Miller are together in this AU. There will also probably be mentions of Kabby.**


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